Hillary or Bust: How Clinton Buzz Hurts Other Dem Contenders

[Capt. Obvious]

For Democrats, 2016 is the year they hope to shatter the nation's highest and toughest glass ceiling. But so far, the party's self-declared glass ceiling cracker has the party's other women waiting on her.

While Hillary Clinton makes up her mind about whether to make another White House bid, other Democratic women with presidential ambitions aggressively insist they're not running this time around. They've signed a letter encouraging Clinton to jump in. They've gone to early nominating states to tout her candidacy — while sometimes turning down their own invitations to those same states for fear of sending signals that they're eyeing a bid.

The result, some operatives privately say, is that Democratic women not named Hillary are falling further behind in the so-called "invisible primary"— potentially forsaking an opportunity to develop a national profile, build a fundraising network, hire key strategists, make high-visibility media appearances, and establish beachheads in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire, moves that could help in 2016 and in future election cycles.

....

And there's the irony: In a presidential cycle in which Democrats have the strongest field of potential women candidates ever, their strongest one could make it more likely that the party ends up, yet again, with a man at the top of the ticket. By standing aside until Clinton makes her intentions clear — as late as the fall of next year — seemingly strong female candidates could be missing a chance to make themselves ready to step in, and step up, if she passes.


Left to right: Potential female presidential nominees Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

NBC

[cantbeserious]

1. Spare Us The Corporatist - Hillary Clinton

eom

[earthside]

2. Very sad for the Democratic Party.

It looks more and more like the Repuglican Party will not be fielding a 2016 nominee that can win.

So, the Democrats have a chance to maybe, hopefully nominate a genuine progressive as their nominee.

And ... thus far the trend appears to be to choose the most conventional, the most establishment, the most corporate candidate out there. Face it, if Hillary did not have the opportunities that came from being First Lady (i.e., Bill Clinton's wife), she won't be a contender for the nomination.

How about a woman nominee in her own right?
We have a treasure trove of great possible candidates -- we don't have to recycle the Clinton-era past.

Or how about a man nominee who is a proud progressive -- this nation has got to be turned around because we are slipping fast.

[brooklynite]

4. Well then, you'd better get to work...

...nobody's stopping you from organizing a campaign for a progressive candidate....just like nobody's stopping Hillary supporters from getting organized to support her. Step away from the keyboard and get involved in real-world politics.

[Wilms]

5. You have that rant programmed to an F-Key?

Oh no! The party hasn't been hijacked by the Third Waywards. It's just that whinny Progressives aren't ponying up $250,000 a pop to have a potential candidate come and speak to them.

[brooklynite]

6. I'll keep hitting the key as long as nothing else changes...

...Plenty of way to organize without $$$. How many people have you asked to write letters to your preferred candidate? How many letters to the Editor have you written?

[Wilms]

7. Plenty is changing...

That's why there's all this upset over the coronation being threatened. Time for Hillary to do more $250K speeches. Inevitability has a price, ya know.

[Jim Lane]

10. What's even sadder is what happens if Clinton stays out of it.

If she doesn't run, Andrew Cuomo will, and will be a strong contender for the nomination.

You describe Clinton as "the most conventional, the most establishment, the most corporate candidate out there." She might actually have to yield that distinction to Cuomo. He has slashed social programs so that he could tout balancing the budget with no new taxes as part of his "New York Open for Business" initiative. He won't even take a firm stand against fracking, a huge issue across the swath of central and southern New York that lies atop the Marcellus Shale.

His only notable progressive stance was his strong leadership in favor of marriage equality. Full credit to him for that, but of course it's an issue that doesn't affect the bottom line of his corporate paymasters.

The best thing for the Democratic Party would be for Clinton and Cuomo to be caught naked in a motel room somewhere, with the resulting scandal torpedoing both their chances and opening the way for, as you say, a proud progressive.

[jsr]

3. It's inevitable. Be assimilated.

[Capt. Obvious]

8. Be cool

Fall in line

[MisterP]

9. "Other Dem Contenders"? how can you not see that that's a contradiction in terms!

if a candidate exists, there can be no other candidacies! that's the definition of a primary!